Title: VMware 12 for linux, and the ports it opens
Date: 2016-03-16 21:39
Category: vmware
Tags: vmware, linux, ports


###VMware
I would be using [qemu-kvm] by choice, but school is using VMware...
Rather than provide IT support for myself if I had a networking issue/etc, I chose to install VMware.
And at least I don't have to pay for it, as school provides a key; I would likely have just used Qemu otherwise.
While school is on workstation 11, 11 flatly fails to work on current linux.
I could not force it to work on debian despite performing a few arcane rituals, though I could at least make it respond a bit more.
A classmate had the same issue on fedora.
So, I went and installed workstation 12 instead, and it-just-works™.


###The Issue
It likes to open two ports by default, and it doesn't really tell you it is doing so...

<!--
    :::bash
    ~ -> nmap -sV localhost

    Starting Nmap 7.01 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2016-03-16 17:44 EDT
    Nmap scan report for localhost (127.0.0.1)
    Host is up (0.00012s latency).
    Other addresses for localhost (not scanned): ::1
    Not shown: 995 closed ports
    PORT     STATE SERVICE         VERSION
    22/tcp   open  ssh             OpenSSH 7.2p2 Debian 1 (protocol 2.0)
    25/tcp   open  smtp            Exim smtpd 4.86_2
    443/tcp  open  ssl/http        VMware VirtualCenter Web service
    902/tcp  open  ssl/vmware-auth VMware Authentication Daemon 1.10 (Uses VNC, SOAP)
    5432/tcp open  postgresql      PostgreSQL DB 9.3.3 - 9.3.5
    Service Info: Host: moving-computer-of-doom.local; OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel

    Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
    Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 13.38 seconds
    ~ -> 
-->

    :::bash
    ~ -> nmap -sV 10.0.0.3

    Starting Nmap 7.01 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2016-03-16 17:44 EDT
    Nmap scan report for doom.lan (10.0.0.3)
    Host is up (0.00013s latency).
    Not shown: 997 closed ports
    PORT    STATE SERVICE         VERSION
    22/tcp  open  ssh             OpenSSH 7.2p2 Debian 1 (protocol 2.0)
    443/tcp open  ssl/http        VMware VirtualCenter Web service
    902/tcp open  ssl/vmware-auth VMware Authentication Daemon 1.10 (Uses VNC, SOAP)
    Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel

    Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
    Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 13.14 seconds
    ~ ->

So, port 443 and 902 are being put up by VMware...


###The Fix
To deal with port 443, you will need to:

Menu -> Edit -> Preferences -> Shared VMs, untick "Enable virtual machine sharing and remote access".

To deal with port 902 is a bit harder. You will need to edit `/etc/init.d/vmware` and `/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server`.

For `/etc/init.d/vmware` comment out the four places containing "Authentication Daemon".

    :::bash
    298  vmware_start_authdlauncher() {
    299     #vmware_bg_exec "`vmware_product_name` Authentication Daemon" \
    300        #"$SBINDIR/vmware-authdlauncher"
    301  }
    ~~~
    348           #vmware_exec 'VMware Authentication Daemon' vmware_start_authdlauncher
    ~~~
    360        stop)
    361           echo 'Stopping VMware services:'
    362           exitcode='0'¬
    363 
    364           #vmware_exec 'VMware Authentication Daemon' vmware_stop_authdlauncher
    ~~~
    388              #vmware_exec 'VMware Authentication Daemon' vmware_start_authdlauncher

And for `/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server`:

    :::bash
    16  ### END INIT INFO¬
    17  echo Aborting launch of vmware-workstation-server¬
    18  exit 0¬


###Links
[qemu-kvm]


[qemu-kvm]: http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page
